Custom Surf Shop Shirts
Custom surf shop shirts for surf shops, board shops, surf schools and the beach town retailers beside them. Olive Branch Apparel prints the shop tee that leaves in a visitor's bag and the one locals wear until the collar gives out.
The studio below opens on a garment dyed long sleeve tee, the layer that goes on after a cold morning session. Add your art, set the quantity and see your price as you go. There is no minimum order, so one piece is a fine first run.
Design Your Surf Shop Tee Here
Put your shop art on a heavyweight long sleeve, then build custom surf shop shirts in short sleeves to match. Change the quantity and the price updates live, so you can compare a small test batch with a full summer order.
The Surf Shop Tee Is a Back Print
Surf shop apparel has a layout of its own, and customers know it without being told. A small mark sits on the front and the real artwork fills the back. Understanding why that layout lasted helps you design a shirt that sells from a rack and looks right on the sand.
Small Front, Big Back
The classic arrangement is a logo a few inches wide on the left chest and a large illustration between the shoulders. On a rack, shirts hang front out, so the chest mark has to identify the shop at a glance. The back is the reward when someone pulls it off the rail.
The back also suits how the shirt gets worn. Someone carrying a board, walking toward the water or sitting on a tailgate shows their back to everyone behind them. Put the wave, the map of the coast or the shop building there, with the town name set underneath.
Why Faded Color Belongs Here
Garment dyed shirts are dyed after they are sewn, which gives soft, slightly uneven color and seams that look gently worn from the first day. The shades run chalky and muted. That finish matches what sun and salt water do to clothes anyway.
Print choices should follow the fabric. A thinner, softer layer of ink that lets a little shirt color through looks at home, where a thick glossy print can look stuck on. Expect slight shade differences between pieces, which is normal for garment dye and part of the appeal.
The same two prints carry across the range. Run them on a short sleeve tee for midsummer, a long sleeve for mornings and evenings and a hoodie for the off season, and the rack reads as one collection instead of a pile of unrelated designs.
Surf Shop Apparel We Print and Embroider
Garment Dyed Long Sleeves
Surf shop shirts on heavyweight long sleeves in sun faded colors, with a chest mark and a full back print for cool mornings.
Short Sleeve Beach Shop Tees
Beach shop tees and tank tops for peak summer, screen printed with the same art so visitors can take the town home with them.
Hoodies, Hats and Beanies
Printed hoodies for the walk back from the water, plus embroidered caps and beanies that sell by the register all year.
From Shop Art to Boxed Tees in Six Steps
You approve a proof of the front and back before anything is printed, so the order arrives ready for the rack.
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1
Pick Your Garment
Three we actually recommend, with the reasons why. Full catalog is one click away.
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2
Drop In Your Art
Upload a logo or start from a sketch. We fix files that will not print.
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3
See Your Price
Per-piece pricing moves as you change quantity and print locations.
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4
Approve A Proof
Nothing runs until you have seen exactly what we are about to make.
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5
We Print It
Screen print, embroidery or DTF, whichever your art and quantity call for.
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6
It Ships
About 14 days from the day you approve the proof, printed and boxed.
Price Long Sleeves and Tees in One Sitting
Set quantities in the studio and see your price for each garment as you build the range. Nothing to fill in first, and no waiting to hear back.
Test a Small Batch
There is no minimum order. Try a new design or color in a handful of pieces before the season, then reorder what sells. The per-piece price falls as quantity rises.
Proof for Front and Back
A proof shows both prints in place with ink colors called out against the shirt color. Nothing is printed until you have looked it over and approved it.
Sketchbook Art Is Fine
A drawing from a local artist or a scan of an old shop sticker is enough to start. We clean up or redraw rough art so it prints well.
Reach a Real Person
A person answers the phone on weekdays, 9am to 5pm Mountain. Call with a question about colors, timing or art files and get a direct answer.
When to Order Custom Surf Shop Shirts
A beach town earns most of its year in a short stretch, and apparel has to be on the rack before the first busy weekend. The calendar below follows a typical summer destination. Shift it to match your own coast and the months your water is busiest.
Order in spring while the shop is quiet. Allow about 14 days after proof approval, plus time to settle art, so the full size run is hanging before the crowds arrive.
Watch which sizes and colors thin out in the first weeks. A top-up of only those pieces keeps the rack full without betting on a second large order.
Visitors leave and the locals have the water back. Long sleeves and hoodies take over, and a design made for the regulars sells better than the souvenir tee.
Shop tees and hats travel well as gifts for people who miss the coast. Have stock printed by late fall, ahead of the weeks when gift buying starts.
Surf schools follow the same curve with one addition. Instructor shirts and any student keepsake tee need to arrive before the first lesson block, and camp weeks may call for a fresh batch partway through the summer.
Ink and Thread for Custom Surf Shop Shirts
Salt, sun and sand are hard on clothing, and a surf shop shirt gets all three. Heavyweight cotton holds its shape after being pulled on over damp skin and stuffed in a board bag. It softens with every wash, which is the quality buyers of this kind of tee are after.
Screen printing is the method for nearly all of it. Surf art tends toward bold shapes and a short list of colors, which is exactly what screens do well, and the per-piece price drops as the run grows. A one color back print on a faded shirt is a classic for good reason.
Hand drawn linework needs a careful eye. Sketchy pen lines and distressed textures print nicely when they are built into the artwork at a sensible weight. Very fine lines and small lettering around a badge can fill in on thick cotton, so we thicken them where needed and show you on the proof.
Direct-to-film reproduces full color pieces such as a painted sunset or a photograph of the break, and it suits short runs. Large solid transfers feel heavier on the shirt, so open designs work best. Embroidery is for caps, beanies and polos, where a small stitched logo holds up to sun and salt.
One limit to know. We do not make rash guards, boardshorts or wetsuits. What we make is the cotton side of the shop, the tees, long sleeves, tank tops, hoodies and hats that people change into after they come out of the water.
Stocking the Rack for Summer
Tell us when your season starts, which garments you want and roughly how many pieces. We will quote the run and tell you plainly how the timing looks.
Surf School Shirts and Selling to Visitors
Surf school shirts have a practical job on the sand. Parents and students need to find the instructors on a crowded beach, so one bright, consistent color with the school name large across the back does more than any clever design. Keep the instructor color off the retail rack.
A student tee is a different thing. Someone who stood up on a board for the first time wants to remember it, and a shirt handed over or sold at the end of the lesson does that. A simple design naming the school and the beach is enough.
For retail, the place name sells the shirt. Visitors are buying the town and the stretch of coast as much as the shop, so give the location real size in the art. Locals want the opposite, a quieter design without the tourist cues, and it is worth making one for them.
Size the first order with care. Without sales history, weight the spread toward the middle sizes and keep a few at each end. Buyers often size up in a heavyweight tee for a loose fit over a swimsuit, so do not run thin on the larger sizes.
Start narrow. Two or three colors of one strong design are easier to keep in stock than a wall of options, and with no minimum order you can test a new color in a small batch. The studio shows the price at each quantity before you commit.
Surf Shop Shirt Questions
Is there a minimum order for custom surf shop shirts?
No. One piece is fine. That lets you test custom surf shop shirts in a small batch before the season and reorder only what moves. The per-piece price drops as the quantity goes up, and the design studio shows your price at any quantity while you build the order.
Why do surf shop tees put the big design on the back?
It is the long standing layout for this kind of shirt, and it works. A small chest logo identifies the shop on the rack, and the large back print is seen by everyone behind the wearer on the beach or the boardwalk. Custom surf shop shirts built this way look familiar to buyers.
Will the colors of garment dyed shirts match exactly?
Not perfectly, and that is expected. Garment dyed pieces are dyed after sewing, so shade varies a little from shirt to shirt and between batches. The color is soft and muted by design. If you reorder later, expect the new pieces to sit close to the first run without being identical.
When should a seasonal shop place its order?
Before the quiet months end. Standard turnaround is about 14 days from the day you approve the proof, and artwork takes time before that. Starting a month or more ahead of your first busy weekend is comfortable. If a date is tight, ask. Sometimes it can be done faster.
Can you print art from a local artist?
Yes. Send the highest quality scan or file you have. We clean up or redraw rough art so it prints well, and thin lines may be thickened slightly for heavy cotton. You approve a proof before anything is printed. Make sure the artist has agreed to the art being used on apparel.
What should surf school instructors wear on the beach?
A bright tee or long sleeve in one color with the school name large across the back, so students and parents can spot the team from a distance. Keep that color for instructors only. Surf school shirts for students can use the same art on a different color as a keepsake.
Should we carry short sleeves or long sleeves?
Both, in different amounts. Short sleeves and tank tops carry midsummer, and long sleeves earn their space on cool mornings, windy evenings and through fall. Using the same prints on each keeps custom surf shop shirts looking like one line. Start with fewer long sleeves and adjust once you see what sells.
Do you ship to coastal towns across the country?
Yes. The shop is in Fort Collins, Colorado, and orders ship across the United States, to either coast and anywhere between. Design in the studio, approve the proof and the order arrives boxed and ready for the rack. A person answers the phone on weekdays, 9am to 5pm Mountain.
Where We Are
Olive Branch Apparel
706 East Stuart Street
Fort Collins, CO 80525
Put Your Break on a Tee
Design a back print, add a chest mark and see your price live in the studio. Approve the proof, and your custom surf shop shirts ship from Fort Collins to your shop.